EP passes $45M budget

EAST PEORIA — The City Council passed a $45 million budget Tuesday night, two days before it becomes effective Thursday to cover the 2014-2015 fiscal year.

The budget included about $1.5 million in cuts the council made last week from the wish lists of department chairmen. Included are two new jobs in the public works department, a new dispatcher and a new human resources employee.

The total budget is up $1.5 million from the current budget.

Commissioner Gary Densberger said a large concern is the city’s “structural deficit” that annually adds money to the budget for employee salaries, benefits and pension funds. That amounted to a $710,000 increase to the 2014-2015 budget.

“That’s something we need to continue to get a handle on,” Densberger said.

The budget includes $1 million for street repair. Commissioner Dan Decker said the street department would now solicit bids for work and create a list of priorities for the work in the coming year.

“If I can find more (money) to spend on the streets, I’ll do it,” said Decker, who is the commissioner for streets and public works.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Josh Allen, one of four property owners whose homes were deemed uninhabitable last year when landslides took out their backyards, linked the plight of those families to next year’s city budget and its reserve account, or “rainy day fund.”

The city’s policy has been that the landslides were a private concern and not subject to a fix with taxpayer money. The four families and 24 others whose homes were devalued by landslides in the Pinecrest Hills subdivision have filed suit against the city.

“So far, you have left the families from Pinecrest Hills twisting in the wind. Let’s pray you do the right thing with the ‘healthy reserves’ that have been set aside for ‘rainy days,’” Allen said, referring to statements made by Mayor Dave Mingus at the State of the City address. “Remember what you said Mayor Mingus, at the beginning of the address, and I quote, ‘That’s the whole mode of our city — serve our people.’”

Densberger said the city has about $4.5 million in reserve.

Allen also raised a concern that the budget and the accompanying appropriation documents weren’t available to him when he stopped at City Hall last week to view them. He said he was told the documents weren’t available. When he got home, the documents had been sent to him by email.

Administrator Tom Brimberry said Tuesday at the meeting that the emailed documents were drafts, and not the finished products that were voted on and approved Tuesday night. The city is required to have the documents available 10 days before the vote.

“All legal requirements were met,” Densberger said after the meeting Tuesday.

Scott Hilyard can be reached at 686-3244 or by email at shilyard@pjstar.com. Follow @scotthilyard on Twitter.